means A first-person account of one's own life or a specific slice of it, written from personal memory rather than strict documentary record.

from From French mémoire, 'memory' or 'record,' which descends from Latin memoria, 'memory, remembrance.' The same root gives us 'memory,' 'memorial,' and 'commemorate' — all built on the Latin verb memorare, 'to call to mind.' English borrowed mémoire in the late 1500s, at first meaning a note or record kept as a reminder; the sense of a written life-account grew from there.